AURORA — Riverdale Ridge just put Class 5A on notice.
In the school’s first year in the biggest classification, the Ravens claimed the state title by beating Broomfield 9-8 in the semifinals and then Cherokee Trail 8-4 in the championship on Saturday at Aurora Sports Park.
It marked the young school’s first team title in Class 5A, and only its third team title overall, joining Class 4A crowns in boys golf in 2021 and girls basketball last winter.
Not bad for a program that started with just seven players at its first practice six years ago.
“That first practice, us coaches looked at each other and I said, ‘It’s time to walk the halls,’” Riverdale Ridge head coach Ray Garza said. “We ended up making the state playoffs that year in 3A as a freshman/sophomore school, and we ended up with 21 girls on the team, many of whom hadn’t played before.”
From there, it’s been a quick and steady ascension for the Ravens, who made serious noise in the 4A state tournament over the past three years, including finishing runner-up to Lutheran last season.
This weekend, the Ravens put it all together to finally get to the mountaintop behind a pitching trio that Garza called the team’s “three-headed monster.” Seniors Brynn Trujillo, Mady Ortiz and Jazmyn Sandoval pitched Riverdale Ridge to the title in conjunction with a lineup that could hit from top to bottom.
After Sandoval finished off the final couple innings of the Ravens’ quarterfinal win over Columbine on Friday afternoon, the tandem of Trujillo and Ortiz got the job done on Saturday. Ortiz pitched five innings against Broomfield before Trujillo closed it out, then the hurlers flipped the script in the title, with Trujillo throwing five innings and Ortiz two.
And against Cherokee Trail, the Ravens offense grabbed the lead early and then didn’t look back.
Senior Zoie Linville’s RBI single gave Riverdale Ridge a 1-0 advantage in the first inning. In the third, Ortiz smacked a solo homer, followed by Linville’s sacrifice fly to make it 3-0. Linville’s hit would’ve been a homer had Cherokee Trail junior center fielder Isabelle Becker not robbed her at the fence.
After an error led to an unearned run on Trujillo in the fourth and cut the score to 3-1, Riverdale Ridge’s offense broke out with a five-run fifth that made it an 8-1 game. Linville had a third RBI, and Ortiz finished off the inning with a two-out, two-run double.
Cherokee Trail got three runs back in the bottom of the inning, two of which were via a homer by sophomore Sydney Cobb. But Ortiz blanked the top-seeded Cougars the final two frames to secure the win.
Riverdale Ridge’s Mady Ortiz smiles as she is congratulated by teammates after scoring during the third inning of their 5A state softball title game against Cherokee Trail on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, at Aurora Sports Park in Aurora, Colorado. Riverdale Ridge won 8-4. (Photo by Andy Colwell/Special to The Denver Post)
Riverdale Ridge, the Rocky Mountain League champions, finished 25-4 and on a 20-game win streak following an out-of-state tournament in Georgia where the Ravens went 1-2. Cherokee Trail, the Centennial League champions making a fourth title game appearance, finished 24-5.
“We struggled a little bit early in the season, but that trip to Georgia was big for us,” Garza said. “We played some pretty good softball teams and realized we weren’t as good as we thought we were. We got back to work, kept our heads down while grinding, and we didn’t lose since.”
Trujillo, a four-year starter and team captain, believes Saturday’s feat is only the start of the rising Thornton power asserting itself at the highest level of sports across Colorado.
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“This first 5A title means so much,” Trujillo said. “This is just the start of us winning a lot at the Class 5A level across all sports, not just softball. There’s definitely more to come.”
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